Why buying any modern Apple Product is just a terrible idea.

[cjs]

And Microsoft, Google, (substitute any other manufacturer) is better?

Yes. My "new" ThinkPad was made in 2016. I'm still using ThinkPads made in 2010 for day to day work.

Google and Samsung have the best Android update policies. They don't cover as long a duration as Apple does but still reasonable.

I suppose it depends on what you feel is "reasonable." A year or two ago I upgraded my Nexus 6, which was not super-quick but still livable, to a Pixel 3XL. Neither was getting OS updates for security issues even at the time I bought them, which is worrisome. Yet the Pixel 3 seems fine otherwise, and with a battery replacement in a year or so, I would expect to be able to use it for several more years.

As far as the first 3 macs wasnt that more of a system ram issue? I know they made 3rd party addon boards which could get the plus beyond 1mb. MAybe the 512 as well. I would think 1mb or 512k was really the issue there.

Yes, very much so. It had twice the memory and several times the performance of typical other computers at the time it was designed, and somehow managed also to be two or three times as slow to get anything done. But it sure looked pretty!

Don’t update then if you don’t need the features? So the device will work until caps went dry.

The issue there, for anything network-connected (which is pretty much everything these days), is security updates.

Even when I was in grade 6 in 2001, the Apple II and LOGO was STILL optional components of the class lessons and by then it was already 8 years past EOL.
(or we had incredibly dated learning materials. BC was a different place 25 years ago)

Perhaps you were using the very same Apple IIs I used in junior high in Coquitlam back in the early '80s.

13 years ago, how many mobile phones had WiFi capabilities (don't forget the aspect of security protocols)? What's the purpose of a telephone, mobile or otherwise? If you can't make and receive calls, the phone is junk or a collector's item.

You're just old. Nobody uses a phone for "talking on the phone" these days. (Except old people.)

Why did so many manufacturers give up on external batteries for the 386+ era motherboards, opting instead for a soldered-in Dallas module? Surely, they were aware of the life of the internal battery and that the retail cost of replacement would far exceed the value of the motherboard. The answer to me is that they didn't expect users to hang onto the things 7 years down the road.

The answer to me is that the soldered in Dallas module saved a couple of bucks, and those that tried external batteries finally got sick of watching customers go to their competitors who were selling what looked like the same product but cheaper.

And even for those customers who do want something longer lasting, simply doing that and charging more doesn't help much when products are changing so quickly. Sure, these guys selling the more expensive one say it will not go obsolete as quickly, but will it really? As a consumer I often have no easy way to evaluate those claims, so I'm better off just buying the cheaper one and replacing it when it dies.

 

[TechVertu]

I agree that the old products had better quality than the new ones, especially for iPhone.

 

[Chuck(G)]

You're just old. Nobody uses a phone for "talking on the phone" these days. (Except old people.)

Even worse, I read the newspapers and listen to the radio.

 

[VERAULT]

Even worse, I read the newspapers and listen to the radio.

We tried to get the NY times delivered to our house.. But the "Adult" Delivery person would not delivery the paper 2 to 3 days out of the week every week and it was a constant problem calling over EVERY SINGLE missed delivery. We just gave up.

The local paper no matter how many times I ask for delivery just wont... I guess the other remote/rural side of town is just too far for them.

Seems work ethic was the actual cause for the death of Print media.

 

[Agent Orange]

Apple: I never was an Apple fan but somehow I got turned around. I was more or less forced into an Apple 11 because of the software required for my hearing aides (high frequency hearing loss due to working around jet engines and mostly old age). My wife has an Apple 13 and loves it. Both of our Apples seem to be constantly updating. She also has an Apple watch which she seldom takes off. She really like the feature of the built in phone app when when her cellphone is in her purse. Makes me think of Dick Tracy's 2-way wrist radio. You know, 'B.O. Plenty', 'Sam Catchem', 'Prune Face' and the boys. I gave 2 really nice Motorola android cellphones away to two of my great grandsons and they really like them. I found those Motorola's to be easier to navigate around. Like some. I never got into the old Apple PC thing, seemed too expensive at the time and compatibility was a problem. My wife also has an iPad from a few years ago and she drags it out occasionally to do what I don't know. Personally, I think Apple makes a pretty goof product these days.

 

[cjs]

Even worse, I read the newspapers and listen to the radio.

Oh, so you are fairly modern after all. What apps do you use for those?

 

[VERAULT]

Oh, so you are fairly modern after all. What apps do you use for those?

Mozzarella sticks and hot wings...

 

[VERAULT]

You could put up with a lot worse performance than most people then.

Maybe thats true.

I still find new uses for my Raspberry PI model 1's as they still perform well for me. Had to replace the SD card on one.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I have a Fire HD tablet that I use as a bedside radio, with a regular FM radio as backup, just in case the net goes out. Also an 11 transistor AM-FM radio in the kitchen in case power fails.
Newspaper is the real cellulosic stuff.

 

[cjs]

Also an 11 transistor AM-FM radio in the kitchen in case power fails.

Transistors! And eleven of them! Kids these days are simply addicted to all this fancy new technology when a simple cat's whisker would do.

 

[Caminokid]

That sucks about your iPad Gen 3. Planned obsolescence is frustrating, and trying to jailbreak it for Android sounds like a headache. It's disappointing when devices are forced into obsolescence too soon.

 

[whartung]

What apps do you use for those?

I have a nit that Sirius XM no longer streams over the web, and you have to use an app for it now.

 

[seaken]

I've had same experience with every tablet I purchased several years ago, iPAD and Android. I don't buy them anymore. I bought Chromecast and Roku and they still work and I can cast my Android phone if I want to. I've had better success with old laptops and a 64-bit Linux with Chrome or Firefox for viewing TV on the side. Can get a old laptop for less than an iPAD and they last longer. And Linux is free.

Seaken

 

[thisisamigaspeaking]

So being that apple forcibly deprecated this device years ago even though it still could do EVERYTHING it was designed to (it was streaming all my services just fine until very recently when it was no longer allowed to) its just STUPID to force these expensive and toxic to produce gadgets into the scrap heap. Even vintage computers can still do things.

Because Apple had locked down the system for no other reason that monetary control there isn't much you can do.

I've never heard of Apple remote locking devices because they are out of support. They just don't get OS updates anymore. Apple provides OS updates for far longer than Android devices - typically 7 years. Even flagship Android products get a couple/few years of updates last I knew.

As far as computers, I love macOS and Macs. Being on a RISC CPU and Unix environment is miles ahead of any Windows PC (although they are getting real ARM finally, it's still Windows, which is garbage). I run Linux, on my MiSTer, and RPi print/file server, but it is just not as refined as macOS. It's getting better and better, but I am pretty happy with Mac. I see no reason to switch to Linux only to have to run it on inferior hardware.

I feel the Ipad is the absolute embodiment of planned obsolescence.

Apple really is just an awful company.. How can so many people be that blind to this?

Intel, Microsoft and AMD are worse - garbage products. Nvidia is ok-ish to my mind.

I like macOS and iOS. I like the hardware build quality, the CPUs/SoCs, the user interfaces, and perhaps the biggest thing, the close integration across different devices. They all just work together, including cloud based storage etc.

What's there to be blind to; they're better than the competition. Again, iOS and macOS updates are for 7ish years, Android are 2-3ish. It's kind of the opposite of everything you are saying unless I'm missing something here.

 

[VERAULT]

Again, iOS and macOS updates are for 7ish years,

4 years on this ipad... only 4 years as stated earlier.

 

[thisisamigaspeaking]

4 years on this ipad... only 4 years as stated earlier.

iPad (3rd generation)

12 years ago (16 Mar 2012)

Ended 4 years and 11 months ago (22 Jul 2019)

 

[VERAULT]

iPad (3rd generation)

12 years ago (16 Mar 2012)

Ended 4 years and 11 months ago (22 Jul 2019)

I thought I was repeating myself but I scoured the entire thread and could not find the post I sent about the IOS 9 timeframe... Weird. It must have never uploaded as I dont see it as being deleted. But I could swear I posted this already..

So ill post again. Initial release to last update. 4 years 4 months. So your date of 2019 is moot if I cant update any programs past ios 9.3.5 from 2016

 

[thisisamigaspeaking]

I thought I was repeating myself but I scoured the entire thread and could not find the post I sent about the IOS 9 timeframe... Weird. It must have never uploaded as I dont see it as being deleted. But I could swear I posted this already..

So ill post again. Initial release to last update. 4 years 4 months. So your date of 2019 is moot if I cant update any programs past ios 9.3.5 from 2016

Ok. That's very unusual for Apple. I'd not heard of a recent case where the support period wasn't 7 or so years. Sounds like in that case the 3rd gen simply couldn't run iOS 10 on a hardware level. Even so, if you think 4 years is bad, try Android.

For the mobile devices being able to jailbreak them is a security/privacy risk. It means someone might be able to extract the encrypted data off them, which is far more of a concern than using a modern device for more than 7 years. I think the same goes for Macs. I'd rather have the security chip to augment the encryption system and keep my data safe than not have it.

 

[VERAULT]

Ok. That's very unusual for Apple. I'd not heard of a recent case where the support period wasn't 7 or so years. Sounds like in that case the 3rd gen simply couldn't run iOS 10 on a hardware level. Even so, if you think 4 years is bad, try Android.

I have for my phone for years now.. And I dont have the same problem at all in that regards... In truth its the opposite. I dont allow updates to my phone as they just mess it up. I want it to work as a phone, to text. to check email. and to view web pages(in desktop view mode.. never mobile).. nothing else.... Quite honestly its not a fair use comparison for me from a phone to an ipad (which for us would be more entertainment based with much more dependencies).

 

[seaken]

I bought several tablets to try to put them to work in our store, one was an iPad (version one I think) and several were Android and one was Windows 8. The only one that was almost successful was the Windows 8 tablet. But I couldn't make them work for our database on our LAN. (That doesn't mean it couldn't be done, just that I couldn't figure it out). I ended up trying to use them for "consuming" web sites and videos from YouTube or Streaming TV. That worked for awhile but then they one by one got abandoned by the programmers. Eventually they could no longer be used for anything like TV viewing and barely adequate for websites. The Windows 8 tablet still survives with it's upgrade to Windows 10. But I stopped using it after the Win 10 upgrade because the battery would not charge correctly anymore. So now they are all retired. My wife has bought a new iPAD a couple of years ago and still uses it but she mostly uses a new Android from Samsung she got through a promotion, or her Switch.

Tablet just don't work unless you are ready to change your whole paradigm. I am entrenched in the desktop and laptop worlds and my data is on my LAN in relational database that I control, it is not in the cloud and I don't subscribe to the apps used by Tablets. For casual entertainment they work for awhile but you have to upgrade often and keep up with the moving target. That is not worth it for me. I just spend a few bucks on an old laptop for that purpose or use my phone, which I do update every two or three years.

I'm with @VERAULT on this one. I think buying these tablets is a terrible idea. But I get that others who don't care about integrating with their old computer systems find them useful. Just not for me.

Seaken